Bread & Butter: Get a taste of Marin's food scene at SF Chefs event

NO NEED TO wonder about Marin chefs' influence on the Bay Area food scene and beyond. Ample evidence will be found at the SF Chefs event from July 28 through Aug. 4. Chefs calling Marin home are well represented.

Starting at 5:30 p.m. July 28, Sausalito residents Emily Luchetti and Mourad Lahlou will be on hand at the talk "Masters of their Craft: Celebrating the Great Female Chefs and Sommeliers of San Francisco." Luchetti of Farallon and Waterbar (San Francisco) will be contributing, as well as Melissa Chou of Lahlou's Aziza in San Francisco. The seven-course dinner and wine pairing will be followed by a dessert bar. Tickets are $450 per person. The dinner will be at Prospect at 300 Spear St. in San Francisco.

Lahlou also will be on the panel at 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Aug. 2 for "Food Industry Day" to discuss "Making Sense of Northern California Cuisine." The full day is $65 and will be at the Westin St. Francis at 335 Powell St. in San Francisco.

On Aug. 2, the "5th Anniversary Friday Night Opening Celebration" party begins at 6:30 p.m. and includes Mill Valley's Tyler Florence's restaurants El Paseo in Mill Valley and Wayfare Tavern in San Francisco. General admission to the tasting tent at Union Square is $140.

Aug. 3 will see Joanne Weir of Sausalito's Copita Tequileria y Comida discussing "Get Fresh with Stone Fruit," along with Gary Danko of Gary Danko's in San Francisco. The chefs will be making a frosty cherry margarita, one of Weir's favorites, and a summer salad. This event begins at 11 a.m. and is $35 a person. It will be at Williams Sonoma at 340 Post St. in San Francisco.

Later that day at 12:30 p.m., Weir, Gonzalo Rivera of Copita and Benjamin Balesteri of Sausalito's Poggio will be among the chefs under the tasting tent at Union Square for "The Five Tastes — Bitter, Sour, Salty, Sweet and Umami." The event is $140.

At 7 p.m., Aziza will be represented at the "Decadence After Dark, The Menu is in the Music." Executive chef Adam Sobel from Nicasio resident Michael Mina's RN74 in San Francisco also will be at the event. Executive chef Scott Whitman will appear on behalf of Sausalito's Sushi Ran, and former Marin resident Yigit Pura will showcase his Tout Sweet Pâtisserie. The event is $140 and is also at the tasting tent at Union Square.

The final event on Aug. 4 will be a "Brunch by the Bay," beginning at 11:45 a.m. Executive chef Justin Everett from Murray Circle at Cavallo Point in Sausalito, executive chef Austin Perkins of Nick's Cove in Marshall and executive chef Bradley Ceynowa of Pizza Antica in Mill Valley will be creating a lavish spread of international delights. This event is $140 a person and is at the tasting tent.

Cheryl Forberg, a nutritionist for NBC's "The Biggest Loser," will demonstrate recipes from her new book "Flavor First," from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Aug. 8 at Novato's Fresh Starts Cooking School.

Forberg was part of the team that opened Wolfgang Puck's Postrio restaurant in San Francisco and co-authored the James Beard award-winning "New Mayo Clinic Cookbook." After 13 seasons of helping people remake their bodies, Forberg has plenty of tips to share.

The menu for the cooking demonstration will include grilled shrimp cocktail with fire-roasted cocktail sauce, spicy beef satay with portobello mushroom and asparagus in addition to a pumpkin flan with ginger biscotti.

The event is $55 per person and includes a full meal, wine and book will be available for purchase. The event will take place in the showcase kitchen at the Next Key Center at 1385 N. Hamilton Parkway in Novato. Proceeds benefit Homeward Bound of Marin. Call 382-3363 or go to www.hbofm.org.

Anokha Closes

Novato's Anokha Cuisine of India has closed. Formerly owned by Surinder "Paul" Sroa, the restaurant changed ownership in 2012 to Savio Mascarenhas. We will be watching the space to see what happens next.